Promoting pine wood exports, the Southern Forest Products Association, and the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association, are reactivating the Southern Pine Council U.S. wood export promotional program.

Chris deMilliano of Steely Lumber Company, SFPA chair, and Tolleson Lumber Company president Joe Kusar, of SLMA, will make its first priority to improve export markets for Southern Pine lumber. The two will head the Southern Pine Council and Bryan Smalley of SLMA has been named director of the Southern Pine Council. 

“The Southern Pine Council is an established moniker and can serve our industry for additional areas of cooperation in the future,” Kusar notes.

“Working together, SLMA member producers can now more efficiently interact with importers and other customers overseas,” says deMilliano. “Online supplier listings will increase the availability of Southern Pine products worldwide."

SFPA has been a funded cooperator of the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, operating under the American Softwoods banner. Promotions include international trade fair exhibits, trade missions to key markets and direct contact with importers. A network of overseas consultants services inquiries about Southern Pine products in Mexico, the Caribbean Basin and Latin America, South America, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East and South Africa, and offers trade barrier assistance and other field activities. A multilingual website – www.SouthernPineGlobal.com – provides a product locator and exporter directory.